RODNEY K. ROTE v. GLENWOOD TRUCKING (06/19/86)

Appeal from the Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Lancaster County in the case of Rodney K. Rote v. Glenwood Trucking, Inc. and West Donegal Township and National Railroad Passenger Corporation and The Consolidated Rail Corporation, No. 95 May Term, 1982.

Rodney K. Rote sued Glenwood Trucking, Inc. (Glenwood) and West Donegal Township (township) in trespass for damages on account of injuries suffered by him in a motorcycle accident which occurred on a township road just south of a bridge which crosses over the railroad tracks of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak). Shortly after crossing the bridge, Mr. Rote struck the rear of a tractor-trailer owned by Glenwood. By amended complaint, Mr. Rote alleged that the township owned and controlled the property on which "brush and overgrowth along the west side of Newville Road both north and south of the railway overpass was allowed to grow to the extent that the plaintiff proceeding south on Newville Road . . . was unable to observe the traffic pattern on south Newville Road, the lane of traffic that the plaintiff was using, until the plaintiff had cleared the railway overpass."

The township filed a third party complaint joining Amtrak as an additional defendant, alleging that Amtrak was the owner of the land containing the brush and overgrowth referred to in Rote's complaint.

In its answers to the township's interrogatories, Amtrak stated as follows:

[I]t is impossible to determine from the pleadings, depositions, etc., the exact location of the vegetation of which Plaintiff complains. While Amtrak may be deemed the owner of the

[ 98 Pa. Commw. Page 263]

fee simple interest in area shown in Exhibit 'A' [Amtrak's Map. No. 692 of the Northeast Corridor Property Identification Map], Amtrak's interest was and is subject to the public easement represented by Newville Road, and the area subject to the public easement was beyond the possession and control of Amtrak.

The township filed a motion for summary judgment, alleging that the "brush and overgrowth along the west side of Newville Road . . . was located on property owned and controlled by the additional defendant National Railroad Passenger Corporation."

Mr. Rote filed an answer to the township's motion for summary judgment, asserting that "[a]t the time of the accident the brush and overgrowth along the west side of Newville Road both north and south of the railway overpass was that extensive that it would be impossible to establish ...

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